Getting better results when marketing yourself

When marketing yourself, you’d probably be wondering how some people are seemingly able to do it effortlessly. After all, you seem them all over the news, and most especially, the internet. People who have lots and lots of clients, and you probably think that they had an easy time when marketing themselves, however, just like when you are and were marketing yourself, they had a hard time. Some even wasted years and years trying to market themselves before they even reached their status right now. For most of us, half a decade is already too long to wait when marketing yourself. But still, perseverance and patience is the main qualities that you must develop within yourself when you are marketing yourself. However, even with perseverance and patience, you are not assured of good results, and thus, these tips will help you get better results when marketing yourself.

• For those who think that marketing yourself online is the best thing to do, then by all means, think otherwise. The problem with most is the fact that they only market themselves online. They fail to realize that one of the most effective ways in marketing yourself is through conventional methods. These methods include sending out business cards, posters and spreading the word through your friends. Business cards are probably the best way, you can give them off in events wherein there are a lot of people and you can give them to your friends so that they’ll be able to refer you to their friends and acquaintances. Doing these things will tremendously help you when marketing yourself, and truth be told, when successfully done, they will be done doing the marketing for you.

• Honesty is a definite must. Remember, in order to be able to fully back up what you claim you are capable of doing, is to make sure that you are able to do it in the first place. Do not exaggerate. Do not make lies, and most especially do not make-up abilities. When marketing yourself, it is very important that you only claim what you are. Lying has an act of haunting you in the future and is one of the reasons why most people have bad reputations.

• Communicate. When marketing yourself, both online and offline, you need to expand your acquaintances and friends. Be friendly. Be courteous. When marketing yourself through a blog site or a website, make sure to keep in touch with your regular readers and clients. Also, be friend those who are trying to market themselves as well, that’s because you may be able to establish a good symbiotic relationship with them.

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Looking for Great Internet Marketing Examples? So was I, and you won’t believe what I found.

I have the philosophy of ‘Never Stop Learning’. And to that end, I often research my own industry on the internet, in bookstores and wherever else I can find relevant information. Recently, I wanted to learn more about what others were doing, so I looked to my peers. Looking at one of the industry networking sites, I did a search on ‘E Marketing’ or ‘Internet Marketing’, I forget which and it really doesn’t matter.

At any rate, I came up with 178 listings. The first one I looked at was very impressive. It was an all Flash site with beautiful, high quality graphics, clear message and well done layout. You couldn’t miss the call to action. The client list was also impressive. From a marketing standpoint, it was great.

However, when I tried to find the site with an outside search, I was not able to find it at all. I expected that this would be the case because it is difficult to get good rankings for Flash sites. The reason is simple: They are only one page in the SE’s eye. That makes it difficult to build up a list of quality links. Limitations on keywords and content relevance and all that. But I liked the site and thought it did a good job of marketing itself. From all appearances, they are very successful.

The next site I looked at was junk. So were the next 8 or 10. I gave up and left. But the more I thought about what I had seen, the more pissed off I became. I also got curious about just what else was there. Surely, it couldn’t all be that bad. As it turns out, it was.

So if you are looking for some kind words and praise, forget it. I have never seen so much crap in all my life. In total, I found two sites that were worthy of the ‘Marketing’ label. Two out of 178. Yuck!

Want to know what I found? Too bad, I’m going to tell you anyway.
OK, so here goes:

Violating the First Rule of Websites:

If it ain’t finished, don’t put it up! Sorry, but ‘Under Construction’ is not a marketing strategy. Get out of the business now before you start wasting other people’s time and your money. If you don’t know any better than that, you shouldn’t be allowed on the internet, much less anywhere near marketing.

An E Marketer listing without a website.

Huh? That one is too stupid to waste any more words on.

Website made of cheap, probably free, templates.

I found more than one of these, believe it or not. Static pages, stock photos and the text that went with them was even worse. Lame phrases without direction or purpose. Certainly no skill shown, outstanding or otherwise. Looked like someone had subscribed to some “You Can Make a Million Dollars from Your Kitchen Table” program. Good marketing is about differentiating yourself from the competition. These people certainly managed to differentiate themselves! Unfortunately, that doesn’t go in the plus column.

The Fancy Website

They have gotten caught up in making it beautiful and forgotten to address the needs of the visitor. Remember the old adage: Words sell, pictures don’t. Pictures and graphics are there to relieve eye strain, relax the mind and support, not replace, your message. Never forget why you’re on the web in the first place. Customers need help or information, give it to them.

Dim and/or Small Fonts

I know it is all the rage to use gray fonts to cut down on eye strain, but these sites gave me a headache trying to find the text on the page. Some of it was so small it must have been in 6 point type. Put the two together and you have given your visitors a great reason to hit the easy-to-find Back button. I certainly didn’t waste any time.

“We Specialize In”

Followed by a list of no less than thirty things they specialize in. You must be joking! You call that specializing? First rule of online marketing: Don’t try to be all things to all people. Pick the one or two things (max three) you do well and/or are the most lucrative and specialize in those. If you try to be an expert in everything, you are an expert in nothing. Get off the web.

Oh, Yes. Many services and no specialties

Same as above but in the opposite direction. Usually the presentation is all over the place and it is impossible to tell just what they do do. That is probably an apt description, come to think of it.

Insider Jargon

Especially on links. Who are you writing your copy for, yourself? There are such things as clients, you know. Or maybe you don’t. My clients haven’t the faintest idea what some of our jargon means, and I don’t use it around them. They aren’t in the business. They have better things to do. That’s why they need us.

Social Media Experts

With no sign of any social media to be found. Great. Very impressive. No links to social networking sites, no videos, nothing but old static pages. Whoopee.

Call to Action

Weak, hard to find or none at all. On some sites I hunted for several minutes and still could not find anything about how to contact them, sign up for their newsletter, download a report or anything else. Yet it was obvious this was a sales page, not just informational. Love to see the ROI on these sites.

Big Claims

Big claims, but not using their so-called expertise on their own site. I checked some of the keywords they were targeting and many were for things few or no one was searching for. There were cases where the keywords listed in the meta tag were not even used on the page, much less in headlines or links.

They also didn’t rank. Again, when I searched their keywords, they didn’t even place anywhere near the top three or four pages. And you expect me to buy your marketing expertise? How long do you suppose I have to think that one over?

Unrelated Subject Matter

On more than one site, I landed on pages that had nothing to do with internet marketing even though that was what the link was supposed to be about. Didn’t take long to exit those pages either.

And the Winner Is…

My all time personal favorite:

An entire landing page written in long copy form on why you changed your name? Who cares? So you chose a crappy name to start with and now you are changing it to another crappy name? Nobody searches your name, dummy. Not even your mother. I don’t care if you changed your name. I phoned my mother. She didn’t care either. I guess nobody cares. So what does that tell you?


OK, now that I’ve had a bit of fun at your expense, let’s take a look at what to do about it. First, back up and take a hard look at your website and your marketing message. You are supposed to be in the marketing business. You are supposed to be an expert. Do you see any of those things I saw on your site? Was I talking about you? If you see any of those things I pointed out here, you would be better off to just scrap it and start over. Or go sell hamburgers.

I don’t know about you, but here’s what I do: When I engage a new client, or even start a new web page, I start with just one question. No matter if I already know the answer, I ask it anyway: “In three words or less, tell me what business you are in.” I guess that’s a question. Anyway, if they can’t answer in three words, work with them until they can. This is important. It has to do with focus. You don’t want them to name ten things they do. If they do many things, get the most important. Save the others for other websites or pages.

Next, use that core business as the seed for keyword research. Make a short list of keywords that meet the four critical rules of keywords:

1. Relevant to the business
2. Good Traffic – Notice that I didn’t say searches. That’s different
3. Low Competition – Not too many competing documents
4. High Monetization – They are profitable to pursue

Don’t guess at keywords. Don’t choose keywords you think people search for and certainly don’t use keywords you would search for. That will ensure your business fails before it even starts. That’s why we do research, to eliminate guessing. We want proven, hard numbers behind our decisions.

For each target keyword, go on the internet and search people and competition who are discussing this subject. Look for hot buttons, weak spots, likes and dislikes. Is there a lot of chatter? Good, that means there is a market for the product or service. And while you are doing this, look for other keywords you and the search engines might have missed. Use the terms people on the internet are using.

Now, build a marketing plan for each of the keywords. Use the information gathered from above. Address issues, offer solutions, define goals and benchmarks. Do not include selling.

Starting with the best keyword, (The one that best meets the four criteria) write content around the subject. Do not sell. Make your content informative, educational, and/or helpful. Address issues and offer solutions as defined above. Continue with other keywords, working your way down the list.

Decide on a theme and select colors and graphics to support the theme.

Now and only now are we ready to start building a site or a new page. Start with your most important subject/keyword and build a basic page. Name it WhateverTheKeywordIs.htm or whatever. But use the keyword as the page name. Be sure the keyword appears in the title, meta tags, headlines and copy body. But refrain from keyword stuffing. You won’t have to. If your subject is well written and written for people, it will achieve top rank as it is.

All this is just a simplified framework, but you get the idea. The web page is just there to carry your message. So deliver your message in as clear and exciting way you can. And don’t forget to have fun.

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10 REAL AdSense Secrets

Everybody would love to make lots of money quickly, working from home, and only doing a few hours of work per week. I've spent the past two years trying to find a great way of doing this. Only over the course of the past few months have I found any "get rich quick" programs worth buying. I've been trying to make money online for a long time. I had a few small websites, but they never made much more than a few hundred per month. It was easy money and didn't require much work on my part, but I knew there were people out there doing better than I was and I knew I could do as well as them.

Now, I've seen a lot of "get rich quick" programs. Most of these people make claims about earning $2000/day with Google or something similarly insane. Almost all of these people are complete liars. Even if they were making $2000/day with Google AdSense, it'd be because they had high- traffic websites with a lot of quality content. I'd know, because in one whole month, I never even made half of what they promised I'd make daily with their programs. Maybe you've already been scammed by one of these fraudsters. Anyway, I finally got sick of what was being offered.

I decided I'd look through the all of the "get rich quick" programs I could find and see if there were any that were actually legitimate. I found that there were owners selling their programs for well over $100, but the information in them could be found almost anywhere online for free. Additionally, they all contained out-of-date information, had no e-mail support, no money back guarantees, and broken links in the downloads section.

In conclusion, almost all of the programs I found were completely useless. The owners knew it, but they couldn't care less about their customers since they didn't offer refund policies! Amazingly, while looking through all of the programs, I actually did find a few legitimate programs. They were run by ordinary people like you and me, and they had found some great methods of making money from their home by doing very little work.

I spent some time working with those programs, and my income is now ten times what it used to be. These programs provided a large amount of great information on how to make extra money on your computer doing very little work. Numerous customers had provided great feedback and reviews for their products. Many of them have started to make money just days after buying!

Their programs have excellent prices, and the authors have a group of paid staff who are dedicating to helping you or providing assistance if you need any. I must say I was amazed! If you do decide to purchase any of the programs listed below, I recommend you join quickly. Most of the owners tell me they are getting an overwhelming number of sales and plan on raising prices in the near future, so order while prices are still low!
To Your Online Success,

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How to Blog So Your Internet Marketing Business Brings in More Money

It is well known that blogging is a powerful tool to add to your business. A lot of people understand the importance of blogging but they can't teach you how to do it. One of the main causes of this is that they do not understand blogging enough to tell you the "how" part so they only tell you "why" it is important. Blogging can be intimidating in the beginning; especially, if you have never gave it a try before. The good news is that blogging is simple and you can expect to get good at it very fast. Continue reading to find out the exact things to do that will make your every blogging effort contribute to the growth of your profits.

When you first start blogging use some free blogging software. You don't want to spend money on anything until you're sure about your direction. There are a lot of free blogging platforms available to get you started. One of the most recognized platforms is WordPress. WordPress is offered as an open source blogging platform that is very easy to install. Once you've uploaded a few files, you're be up and running in just minutes. You're even able to install the platform onto an existing hosting plan. You'll need to choose a theme for your blog, which can be a lot of fun. If you want a custom theme for your blog, there are plenty of companies happy to charge you a fee to create one for you. If you aren't sure how much you really want to spend on your theme, however, you can use one of the millions of free themes that are available for downloading.

You have the choice of literally millions of different free themes and templates for your blog. If you want a custom built blog, but don't want to pay for it, why not download a free theme and tweak the code a little so it appears unique?

Your site should be a place where people can comment on their thoughts without worrying about them being deleted. This won't be a major problem when you first launch your blog but you must keep it in mind later. As you become more popular and get weirder comments (or hateful comments) you might be tempted to close your comments or to only publish the comments you like. Allowing people to publish comments that disagree with you will show that you are open to more opinions than your own. Blogs of this type usually always outperform ones that moderate a lot because people are encouraged to contribute their thoughts.

You can start any kind of blog you want and do all kinds of things to keep it interesting. There are no limits to how creative your blog can be. A blog can really be anything you want it to be. Blogging is, for many people, something they come to enjoy and look forward to. It's one area of marketing where you get to do pretty much whatever you want! So there's no excuse to procrastinate; you can start setting up your blog right away!

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Things to look for in a Home Based Business.

The home based business boom is a result of many people looking to work at home.

Foremost, you want the business to be ethical and honest.

For several years multilevel marketing opportunities were shied away from due to their connection to pyramid schemes. It is true that a few people made a ton of money on these schemes, but for every person who got rich, there were several who lost money. Despite the fact that a tangible product or viable service plays a major role in ethical multilevel marketing businesses, the similarities keep people from venturing into this type of commerce.

If you are one of those who do not believe a home business can make you money without taking it from someone else, consider the beginnings of multilevel marketing.

In the past many large companies such as Avon, Amway, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Tupperware and Fuller Brush used door to door selling and multilevel marketing to put their products in the homes of very happy customers while at the same time allowing ordinary people to earn an astonishing income.

The distributors were able to earn as much money as they wanted and were encouraged to bring in additional people from whom they earned a small commission. This practice was acceptable since there was a tangible product changing hands and many people became very successful. The companies realized increased sales and the folks in the field made money.

There is no difference between today�s MLM programs and the door-to-door sales opportunities that worked for so many in the past, other than a reputation tainted by unscrupulous vendors.

I have worked in the Pool and Spa business for 20 years. As with any business, there are good operators and really poor ones. Home based business is no different than any other business. Companies go out of business, people at the top steal and leave, etc.

The point is, look at the individual company, not at the industry as a whole.

This is why when you search for a home business you must carefully research the company you are considering to make sure the business is viable and product or service being offered is needed by consumers.

The first place you should look: The owners of the company. Who are they? What have they done in the past? Do they manufacture their own products? How many companies have they been involved with? What happened with those companies?

Once you find the opportunity that feels right to you, you can expend the necessary energy to make your distributorship work for you�not only in sales increases, but also bringing in new distributors to increase your income from commissions on their sales as well.

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The Impact of Internet on Business And Marketing

An Internet Marketing program has two sides. One is the part devoted to individual customers. The other is the business to business component. E-commerce programs as well as advertising, sales support, customer service and public relations are all elements of an internet marketing program.

Similar companies compete against one another while being only a click of the mouse away. In other words, a buyer can locate numerous sellers offering similar merchandise, similar prices and similar offers in a very short time period. As more people and businesses become comfortable with the internet, the marketing landscape will continue to evolve quickly in the coming years.

Use of the internet has exploded during the last few years in both the consumer and business-to-business markets. Although the experts still debate the future of the internet, no one doubts it is having an impact on how business is taking place in the twenty 'first century, even with all of the - - dot crashes - - of the late 1990s. Here are some facts about the internet that highlight its tremendous growth and presence in society:

- The most common products consumers' research online and purchase off-line (at the store or outlet) are: automobiles, computer, hardware, travel, electronics, books, appliances, music, sporting goods and clothing.

- Over 25 percent of all business-to-business purchases are placed through some type of internet connection.

- The five top business-to-business e-commerce products are computers and electronics, motor vehicles, petrochemicals, utilities, papers and office products.

- In 2004, 10 percent of business-to-business advertising dollars were spent on the internet. The total amount spent was $8.7 billion.

- About 54 percent of the e-mail users have responded to an e-mail advertisement. Almost half purchased a product.

- Internet retail sales account for almost 2.5 percent of all retail sales.

Business-to-business marketers were among the first companies actually to make profits using the internet. In today's marketplace, the web is becoming the communication tool of choice for many business-to-business companies. The internet provides opportunities for communication, customer service, sales support, collaboration and e-commerce.

Some companies use the internet for every aspect of their business including taking orders, inventory control, production scheduling, communications plans, sales programs, service departments and support programs. The change from traditional communication channels such as salespeople, telephone and - - snail mail - -to the internet and e-mail happened quickly in some companies and more slowly in others.

Now, convincing top management of the benefits of internet marketing is essential. There is still a lack of internet expertise in the business community. As a result, many companies are turning to marketing agencies for guidance.

To conclude, the influence of the internet on various businesses and industries has been clearly noted in today's world. The presence of the internet and e-commerce is so sweeping that the various applications of web technology are now essential elements of a fully integrated marketing communications program.

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Internet Marketing - Advantages and Disavantages

  Everyone seems to be jumping on the internet marketing bandwagon lately. In the race to get their business online, many successful businesses forget to ask themselves some tough questions about what they are doing, what their expectations are and what their plan is to meet those expectations.


The internet can be a powerful tool that can put you on solid footing with bigger companies. On the other hand, the other companies may have more money to pay for advertising. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind as you analyze your internet marketing strategy.

Advantage of Internet Marketing

- your store is open, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. Further, your customers are worldwide in reach, and can shop anytime that they want to

- the cost of spreading your message is next to nothing. Emailing your subscription base is more oftne cheaper than sending a letter through the mail

- updating your subscribers can be done almost instantly through email. Visitors to your website can get up to the minute information on each visit. If you are having a sale, your customers can start shopping at the discounted prices literally as soon as they open their email

- if you have an information sensitive business, such as a law firm, newspaper or online magazine, you can deliver your products directly to your customers without having to use a courier

Disadvantages of Internet Marketing

- online marketing is not free. The cost of software, hardware, wed site design, maintenance of your site, online distribution costs and of course, time, all must be factored into the cost of providing your service or product.

- slightly over 50% of households shop online. While that number will continue to grow, you are reaching less than two out of three households.

- the internet is still regarded as a source of information gathering for the majority of your customers. Of the number of visitors to your site, the vast majority of visitors who are motivated to buy will do so in person. Many people prefer the live interaction when they buy. If you have a small business with one location, this may deter customers from buying.

- easier to have outdated information on your site, thus timing of updates is critical

- there is no replacement for good old fashioned customer service. The majority of internet marketers lack customer service and inquiry response programs. As a result, many online visitors to your site will already have painted your site as poor service before they have even contacted you. The majority of websites also have poor navigation, which makes it difficult for your visitor to find what they are looking for. Many sites were created with a marketing view, not a customer service point of view.

- is your site secure? Does your customer know this? There are many incorrect stereotypes about the security of the internet out there. As a result, many of your visitors will not want to use their credit card to make a purchase. The fear of having their credit card info stolen is a clear and present danger in the minds of your visitors

- there is a lot of competition for your product already out there. By the time your visitor finds you, they have already been clicking many links. Unless they can find what they are looking for quickly, they are gone.

- many web visitors expect something for free. What do you have to offer them?

There are many other pros and cons of internet marketing. Its important for you to consider each when creating your internet marketing strategy. Each of the disadvantages can be overcome, but only if you view the customer experience from the eyes of your customer, not as an internet marketer.

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